OFFICE BUILDINGS

Dear Readers,

What seemed to be an interim solution two years ago under the catchphrase social distancing has become everyday life. Until 20 March, employers were obliged to facilitate working from home. Where do we go from here? The pandemic has changed the world of work, because it became evident that being in the office is no longer a necessity. The home office has come to stay. But is that what everyone wants? The pros and cons have been sufficiently discussed in recent months, and ultimately it’s the employers who would like to turn back the clock. What needs to be done for this to happen? When selecting projects for the current issue on “Office and Administration”, we realised: an office workstation dictated by workplace guidelines is no longer an enticement! “Yesterday everything was completely different” is written on the wall in the newly designed office of a Stuttgartbased advertising agency. Here, as in the headquarters, agencies and offices of architects, service providers and management consultants, employees are offered a variety of options: working alone, focused, or in a team, agile and flexible – in specially adapted working atmospheres that are as comfortable as a home office. In her article “Office architecture”, interior designer Dr. Tanja Remke describes what we can learn from history for the design of post-pandemic extreme office types. Our extensive product section highlights the new challenges for furniture and acoustics associated with the changes. A special piece of furniture caught the eye of AIT columnist Dominik Reding in recent news broadcasts: the six-metre-long, cream-white, oval table, the head of which Vladimir Putin tends to occupy. The essay “The Table” makes clear what is really important these days. In a Berlin-Neukölln church, Reding lights a candle – for Ukraine and against the war. We very much hope it helps!

Best wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect